Chapter 2 – Life so Far

Sookie was fuming how dare he bring that lying bastard into her home, their home. She’d told him and told him that she didn’t want to see either of those two anywhere near their home and he brought them inside. She was so furious with him right now, even though she knew she wouldn’t stay that way. She could never stay mad at Eric especially when he always had a good reason for the things he did, even if she couldn’t see them right off.

In the past she would get so angry with him she’d say something without thinking first, then she’d find out the reason behind his actions and she’d feel like such an uber-bitch that she’d be apologizing for weeks after the fact.

He always forgave her, then gave her his now very familiar speech about jumping to conclusions. Taking a deep breath and looking at the clock, she knew he would be awake in a few minutes, she decided that she would go down to his little hidey-hole and just listen. Once he explained, if she was still rightfully mad then she would let some of her thoughts fly, until then she could remain calm.

She really hoped she could, she’d been in the wrong so many times lately that damn it, it was his turn. Yeah that thought was calm and mature. Rolling her eyes at herself she made her way down to Eric hoping that they could sort this mess out without it turning into another screaming match. She loved him beyond hope, she really did but sometimes he just made her wanna scream and throw things. On occassion she even gave into those impulses, which would only make him laugh and kiss her senseless. Love makes you do the wacky.

Eric felt her drawing nearer and began reorganizing his thoughts. If he was going to find out what happened and get to the truth without her finding out about who he was, or rather when he was from, he needed to have a strategy. And he knew just what to say, he hoped.

“Ah, lover you’ve come to see me. Is it too much to hope this visit will be less talking and more kissing?” Giving her his patented leer he waited for his opening.

“No Eric, we’re going to talk about what happened yesterday, how could you invite them into our home?” And there it was, she would likely become furious with him, but he needed to know about Compton and his Childe, and he was going to go back and fix these problems so it really shouldn’t matter all that much.

“What I want to know is, why it is so hard for you to forgive them?” He didn’t even have to wait two seconds for the eruption of her temper. He prayed this had been the right tact to take.

“Forgive them! You want me to forgive them after what he did, what they both did! Oh, yeah that’s such a marvelous idea why don’t I just forgive Bill for deceiving me and trying to just give me to his bitch Queen as some sort of slave? Oh wait I did that! I was a good little Christian and I turned the other cheek when I first found out, and if that had been the end of it, maybe the sight of him wouldn’t fill me with such rage to this very day, but no the hits just kept on coming. Slavery I could forgive because he’d failed after all, it didn’t ever actually happen, it was just a plan that he’d had. Then I find out that high handed buffoon had played me from day one, letting the Ratts beat me so he could give me his blood and establish a connection with me. Or maybe you mean I should forgive him for lying to my face every day of our so called relationship. Relationship, ha, I say ha! More like stockholm syndrom at its best.

“Or maybe you’re not talking about Bill at all, maybe you mean I should forgive Jessica? Is that what you meant? Hmmm? I mean what she did she didn’t even do to me, so why shouldn’t I forgive her right. All she did was destroy my brother’s life and nearly get all of us killed. What’s not to forgive there? She had no right to play my brother like that and I will never forgive either of them and if you think I should maybe you should just go live with them!”

With that she turned and stormed out, or rather up, and away from him leaving him stunned. He didn’t understand all of what she said especially about Jessica but Bill’s crimes left little to interpretation. So the little weasel was working with the Queen behind his back was he, and he’d apparently tricked Sookie into taking his blood, no wonder he had her loyalty so firmly cemented. But for every trick there was a way around it, all he had to do was break the bond once they returned to their time, find the proof of his crimes and help Sookie see the truth.

As for Jessica he supposed he would have to keep an eye on her and keep her away from the Stackhouse boy as much as possible.

He would tell Pam all and she would help ensure neither Bill nor his progeny found out the truth behind Sookie’s hatred while they were here. If Bill learned that Sookie would one day learn the truth of him, he would do everything in his power to keep it from her.

Soon though, there would be nothing he could do to hide it from her, and soon Billy boy would pay for his apparent ill treatment of his future lover.

Slowly following Sookie out of his cubby he sent his Childe a command to keep the other occupant of this house busy while he spoke with Sookie again. He would do his best to soothe her hurt feelings and possibly find out more about the two of them. Knowing Sookie it would hopefully not take much, she was not one to hold on to her anger, at least not usually but seeing her reaction to Bill that may have changed in the years to come.

Finding her sitting at the kitchen table staring at her hands, he slowly and quietly sat down opposite her and waited. He knew she was aware of his presence, so he waited for her to acknowledge him and initiate the conversation. After nearly thirty minutes of silence she looked up into his eyes with tears in her own.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper. I really did go down there just to talk things out and listen to your side of things without jumping to conclusions like you keep telling me to do. It’s just thinking about Bill and Jessica and about how stupid I was back then to believe them just makes me so mad. And there’s nothing I can do about it now, and that just makes me mad and frustrated. But I never should have taken it out on you that was wrong of me, you just made a suggestion and I completely flew off the handle at you. I’m sorry.”

He was stunned that she had apologized to him, when he had assumed she would demand one of him. Thinking to keep the peace he offered an apology of his own for his thoughtless words, which she readily accepted before wiping her tears away and giving him a watery smile.

“Was there something you wanted to talk about?”

“No, lover I had only wanted to apologize to you for acting in such a foolish manner both yesterday and this evening. Now if all is well I will go dress and speak with Pam.” He had wanted to ask her about them himself but upon further reflection he thought that Pam’s inquiries would be less noticeable.

As he moved towards his child he could not help the grin that tugged at his lips, Sookie was well and truly his.

Bill could not believe that his Sookie was no longer his but Eric’s. He did not understand what could have possibly happened to tear them apart but was certain that whatever it had been was Eric’s doing. Once they were home again he would warn Sookie more fervently about Eric and his manipulative ways, possibly even using the bond he had formed with her without her knowledge to help her to hate the smug Viking. A gentle nudge towards the right emotion should be all that was needed.

How dare he take her from him, and not only that but he had apparently gone so far as to poison her mind against not only him but his Childe as well. He knew Jessica would never do anything to Sookie, she saw her as a mother or elder sister and would never risk that connection. This was all Eric’s fault he was certain of it. Now he just needed to come up with a plan to prevent this from happening.

Jessica was crying in the corner babbling on and on about how Sookie just couldn’t hate her, wondering aloud what she could have possibly done, but Bill heard none of this. His mind was completely consumed with one thought.

Sookie was his and no one would ever take her from him while he still walked this earth!

Eric just couldn’t seem to stop smiling since the moment he found out that Sookie was in fact his, now all he needed to know was how that happened. Walking into the other room where his Childe and his lover’s housemate Amelia were, she was something else he would need to learn about, he wasn’t at all surprised to find them kissing. He’d felt his Childe’s surprise followed by her pleasure when the other woman had initiated the kiss.

Clearing his throat to gain the humans attention he sent his need for privacy through the bond to his Childe knowing she would get the girl to leave with little effort.

“Amelia dear, Eric and I need to speak if you wouldn’t mind going to keep Sookie company.” Without so much as a single word of protest the girl quietly left the room, but not before sending Eric what he could only call a smile of reassurance.

Well at least he knew there was at least one person in Sookie’s life that was on his side, and the side of his relationship with Sookie. When they returned to their own time he would have to be sure his lover met this formidable witch.

“Pamela I need you to speak with Sookie. I need to know about her relationship with me but cannot ask her myself.” His Childe as expected only nodded and stood to do as he asked immediately.

Sighing he sat on the sofa in the living room waiting and listening.

While Pam did not understand her maker’s feelings for the Stackhouse girl she did know how much she meant to him. She’d been with him for over a hundred years and had never seen him act even close to this way about anyone, not even her. So she would support him and do whatever she could to help him gain what he wanted so badly, he deserved the happiness she glimpsed him him whenever the girl was around. If she was honest she would admit she even liked the girl, not that she would be admitting that out loud any time soon.

Finding Sookie upstairs in what she could only assume was her room she took a moment to organize her thoughts knowing even one wrong step could be horrendous.

“Sookie, can we talk?”

“Of course Pam. I was just putting all my loose pictures into the albums I started. What do you want to talk about?” The telepath sounded so welcoming and friendly that for a moment she was thrown off track. It took her an embarrassingly long time to remember why she had sought the younger woman out in the first place.

“Um, you see I may be developing feelings for a non-vampire and I wanted to talk about you and Eric. You two are the only mixed species vampire relationship I know that truly works and I was just hoping we could talk about the two of you, the high and low points, just to see if I truly want to endure the impending headache, you know if it will be worth it.” It was the only reason she could think of for discussing things she was certain she should have first-hand knowledge of already.

“Of course Pam. You’re one of my best friends now and I want you to be happy, so what would you like to start with?”

She was momentarily sidetracked by Sookie’s declaration of their friendship. She could feel her Makers pleasure at the fact through their bond, and if truth be known she may have felt a littlesomething as well.

She’d never really had any close female friends that weren’t girlfriends and it felt nice to have someone who truly cared about her happiness, besides her Maker that is, she knew Eric cared. But for some reason having another girl care just felt different, almost better.

Shaking her head to clear her mind of such thoughts she turned back to Sookie to find her waiting patiently for Pam’s attention to return to her. This girl was truly an amazing creature, even if she was a human.

“Let’s start at the beginning shall we. How was it that you decided to go from Bill to Eric?”

“Is the person you’re interested in seeing someone else?”

“Not at the moment, but tipping the scales in my favor wouldn’t hurt matters now would it?” Appealing to her gushy human heart was a little low, but if it worked it would all be worth it. If need be she would make ammends when she finally returned to her proper time.

“Of course not. Well as you know Pam right after Bill and I parted ways Eric got caught up in that whole witch problem and he had to come stay with me. I guess that’s when he and I first became close, but then after the spell they put him under was broken and he didn’t remember anything I panicked and didn’t tell him. I suppose that was really the start for us, our real start anyway.”

Stopping her because she could feel the question through her bond with Eric and her own curiosity getting the better of her, she had to ask.

“Why did you panic, was it because of the emotions he evoked in you?”

“No,” She received a strange look from Sookie and guessed this was a subject they’d spoken on before. She kept her expression blank and her eyes bored, hoping Sookie would just think this was a vampire thing, and answer the question. Her patience was quickly rewarded with the information she craved.

“You know I didn’t mind that so much as fearing that he would remember what happened with Debbie while he was here with me. I know now that it was stupid to think he would use it against me, but I did. Sometimes I still can’t believe I killed her, but as you and Eric are so fond of telling me, if I hadn’t killed her she’d have killed me. Anyway moving on to less gore-y topics.”

She and Eric both desperately wanted to know more about this Debbie but knew asking would be too risky. She did not like the sound of this attempted killing of her new friend. She and Eric would just have to remember the name, and prevent it from ever happening.

She could tell the taking of a life weighed on the girls mind, and since she knew it wouldn’t bother her at all, why not help out and have fun at the same time?

“And after his memory loss?”

“You know all about that Pam, he and I skirted around it for a while. He knew something happened while he was here with me but couldn’t remember what it was and I wasn’t willing to tell, because telling him some would mean telling him all. And with the investigators trolling around looking for Debbie, and asking questions, I went for plausible deniability. I could honestly answer the Were’s when they asked that I didn’t know where Debbie was because Eric had gotten rid of her and even he didn’t remember where he put her.

“And then I met Quinn. He and I hit it off right from the start. Even though our start was a little weird. I met him during the contest for a new Pack Master for Shreveport, I was furious for a time with Alcide for even taking me there, mostly since he hadn’t warned me about everything that was going to happen during the ceremony. But the whole time I was with Quinn there was something missing, a piece that didn’t quite fit, I couldn’t put my finger on it though. He was nice and funny, he listened to me and he wasn’t a vampire. He was everything I thought I wanted. Then Eric and I started spending time with each other again, whenever Quinn was away on business.

“I hadn’t meant for it to be anything, just helping him whenever he needed my specific talents. I was still helping Alcide too even though he and I were an almost couple. I was still working for Sam even though he and I had a momentary thing. Hell the only one of my formers I wasn’t keeping in touch with at the time was Bill and that wasn’t from lack of trying on his part.

“Eventually Quinn found out that I was spending time with Eric and I don’t know if he was threatened or just jealous but we started fighting about it. It seemed like after that all he and I ever did was fight about Eric, and then one day you came to see me while he and I were in the middle of one of our particularly nasty blow ups and you talked sense into me about him.

“I think that was when you and I really became friends. Not that we hadn’t already been friends for a while, but before you and I kind of needed Eric as a go between for our friendship like a buffer really. But that night, you told Quinn to leave, in fact I think your exact sentence, held more expletives then I’d ever heard one person say at one time in my life. Then you sat with me on my porch, and you told me why I was with Quinn.

“You said that I was with Quinn not because he made me happy, because if that were true I would have left him long before then, since he hadn’t been making me anything but miserable for about a month by that point. You said that I was with Quinn because it was easier to hide from my feeling for Eric if I had a living breathing excuse right in front of me. I could tell myself that I couldn’t have any feeling for Eric because I was with Quinn, and you were right. So I broke things off with Quinn which didn’t go so well, and I went to see Eric.

“When I got to Fangtasia that night and told you why I was there you grabbed my arm and dragged me over to Eric’s throne, then you grabbed Eric’s arm in you other hand and dragged us both into his office. You gave us both this look of complete exasperation and yelled at us. You said ‘Now that you’re both single maybe you two mopey little love birds can work things out. Cause this whole is he or isn’t he shit is getting to be bad for business. So don’t either of you come out of here until you work out where exactly you stand with one another or I swear I won’t talk to either of you ever again’ then you stormed out.

“It took nearly all night but eventually the two of us worked everything out. We agreed to take things slow which lasted all of about two days, then he showed up on my doorstep with a bag in his hand, and demanded I let him redecorate at least half of the place since he was absolutely not sitting on anything floral. And that was that. We still have out little spats now and then, mainly about Bill and the fact that I won’t let either of you kill him, but for the most part we work well together. Did that help with your decision about Amelia?”

Pam was stunned, she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. About Sookie, about Eric, or about herself. She hoped she and her maker would be able to prevent some of the tragedy while preserving a lot of the good.

Figuring there was no harm in trying, she decided to broach another subject she wanted desperately to know about and knew her maker wanted more details as well.

“Would you like to talk about Compton? I mean that is what girlfriends do correct, talk whenever ones ex appears and makes an ass of himself.”

“I don’t really want to talk about him Pam. He is my past and Eric is my future end of story. As far as I’m concerned he doesn’t exist, the only reason I don’t let you or Eric kill him is because that would end badly for the two of you at the moment. And the last thing we need is another visit from any of the higher ups from the vamp world. You remember the mandate, no killing not even of your own kind, until that thing with Russell finally dies down.”

Russell? Yet another thing she would have to discreetly find out about. This whole future was becoming more and more complicated. She for one would be glad when it’s over.

Standing outside Sookie’s home Bill could not believe what he had just heard. His Sookie, his soul mate, had just said that she no longer cared for him in any way. He would not let this stand, this had to end soon so he could return home, and stop this madness from ever happening. Sookie was his damn it and no one was taking her from him, and she was never leaving him. He would make sure of it.